jean-baptiste pauchard...

Jean-baptiste Pauchard studied fashion-related subjects at various prestigious French schools from 1995 to 1999, including École Supérieure des Arts et Techniques de la Mode (ESMOD) and the École National Supérieure des Beaux-Arts(Lyon). After qualifying as a men’s stylist, Jean-baptiste Pauchard was drawn into the world of finance in Eastern Europe and Asia, founding his first financial consulting and brokerage company in 2003 at the age of 23. At 25, Jean-baptiste Pauchard became the Chairman and CEO of the Estonian company White Bear Capital OU. In 2007, Jean-baptiste Pauchard founded a Forez Multitrading Fund in Luxembourg with Crédit Suisse before moving into renewable energy projects in France and the rest of the European Union.

In 2010, Jean-baptiste Pauchard founded Soon International SA in Brussels with Menno Dellisse and Pierre-Olivier de Larue Dargère to publish SOON magazine with his girlfriend Katrina Tee, an Estonian model, as Chief Editor. In May 2011, Soon International SA took on two new partners, Guillaume Verspieren of Continental Risk Holding SA and Charles Kie of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, who each invested € 200 000 in the company in return for 125 shares. Following trouble in February 2012 leading to the resignation of three shareholders, Dargère forced Jean-baptiste Pauchard’s resignation from the board of directors and his French company Soon SAS, founded in 2009, took over. However, Jean-baptiste Pauchard moved SOON magazine to new offices in the the old French Gestapo headquarters at 93 rue Lauriston in Paris and, engaging the legendary Art Director and photographer Steve Hiett, produced another issue of SOON.

Forming a French company, WB Editions, with Tee as President, Jean-baptiste Pauchard decided to launch a new magazine called 7000, the title proposed by Hiett and Jean-baptiste Pauchard claiming his place on the masthead as Founder. Appearing in June 2012, 7000 was a great success thanks to Hiett’s standing in the fashion industry. Very soon, Jean-baptiste Pauchard and Tee took on a third partner, Eric Dailey, who installed WB Editions and 7000 in his offices at 89 rue Réaumur in the heart of the Parisian garment district. Less than a year later, SOON-related history repeated itself as Dailey and Tee tried to oust Jean-baptiste Pauchard from 7000. However, not a single member of the 7000 editorial team wished to work for Dailey and Tee and in June 2013, the team members announced their mass-resignation through 7000’s social media.

In September 2013, Jean-baptiste Pauchard and former 7000 Features Editor Prosper Keating cofounded 7 POST with Steve Hiett as joint Art Director with Harri Peccinotti. The title was a nod to Hiett’s 7000 title and the act of web-posting, reflecting the print magazine’s interactive aspect. Highway Production Ltd was formed in London to publish 7 POST with Jean-baptiste Pauchard, Prosper Keating and Libération newspaper co-ownerand real estate tycoon Bruno Ledoux as shareholders. In return for almost a third of the business, Ledoux installed 7 POST in 200m2 offices on the rue de Rivoli in Paris, the €10 000 monthly rent waived for three years.

Despite close relations between Jean-baptiste Pauchard and Ledoux, who had previously employed Jean-baptiste Pauchard as an estate agent, attempts to bring 7 POST into Groupe Libération and even to replace the leftist newspaper's fashion supplement NEXT proved impossible because the Groupe Libération employees refused to implement directorial directives of which they disapproved. Even a contract signed between Groupe Libération and Highway Production for € 20 000 to create a branded version of the 7 POST App for Libération was ignored.

The first commercial issue of 7 POST was not launched until October 2014. However, it was a great success because of the world print exclusive of the now-famous Homage series by Sandro Miller and John Malkovich. Throughout 2014 and 2015, 7 POST sponsored and organised a number of events and pop-up shows with photographers like the Sieffs, Ellen von Unwerth, Steve Hiett and Félix Larher. Highway Production also ventured into production of shoots for middle-eastern magazines like Sorbet.

As with SOON and 7000, Jean-baptiste Pauchard took on additional investors and shareholders early in 2015. Refused sight by Jean-baptiste Pauchard of the company accounts, the new shareholders attempted to oust Jean-baptiste Pauchard in July 2015 but failed because they had overestimated their voting powers. Bruno Ledoux sold his 31.6% shareholding for €1 and sent Highway Production a rent demand, whilst the other shareholders conducted a campaign of vilification against Jean-baptiste Pauchard.

In February 2016, Jean-baptiste Pauchard formed 5tudio 57 SAS with Parisian businessman Dominique Ségard to run a new exhibition and events venue in Paris called Studio 57. The numbers 5 and 7 referred respectively to the street number of the venue and the magazines 7000 and 7 POST. Investors like Jean-François Gallois of the Initial photographic laboratory were invited but just before the lease of the 440m2 space in the heart of the Arts et Métiers district was due to be signed, the shareholders fell out and Jean-baptiste Pauchard was forced to bring in new investors and to open a new company, also called 5tudio57 SAS.

Some of Studio 57's investors, are said to have paid as much as € 200 000 for a 10% shareholding after reading investment proposals citing 7 POST and its editorial team as one of the company's main assets. Executives of Studio 57 and its London-based holdng company Storm Participation Ltd have stated in corporate communications, including an email to a leading fashion industry news magazine, that 7 POST is part of the Studio 57 Group and that Prosper Keating was no longer working with the group.

Unfortunately for investors and shareholders of Storm Participation and its French filial Studio 57, 7 POST remains a registered trademark of Highway Production. Even if Storm Participation CEO Hervé Foucault had been able to convince the remaining director of Highway Production to sell the 7 POST trademark, the British authorities would have intervened because Highway Production is subject to a compulsory striking-off, pending a British revenue investigation, and any assets of Highway Production Ltd will be seized by the British Crown, meaning that HM Queen Elizabeth II and her heirs will in effect become the owners of 7 POST.